a book
The Butcher Boy
Patrick McCabe · 1992 · 256 pages
A modern classic of Irish fiction, shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize.
When I was a young lad twenty or thirty or forty years ago I lived in a small town where they were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs Nugent.
Francie Brady is a small-town rascal who spends his days turning a blind eye to the troubles at home and getting up to mischief with his best friend Joe - hiding in the chicken-house, shouting abuse at fish in the local stream. But after a disagreement with his neighbour Mrs Nugent over her son's missing comic books, Francie's reckless streak spirals out of control and gives rise to a monstrous obsession . . .
Fearless, shocking and blackly funny, Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy won the 1992 Irish Times Literature Prize and was shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize. It is a modern classic of Irish fiction, a portrait of the insidious violence latent in small town life and of a frenzied young man lashing out at everyone, even himself.
Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.
recommended by 2 people
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Tana French
“‘When I was a young lad twenty or thirty or forty years ago I lived in a small town where they were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs Nugent…’ The events unfold through the increasingly distorted viewpoint of Francie Brady: his world and his mind slowly disintegrate and his private mythology takes over, with very nasty consequences. The usual arc of a mystery centers on finding out whodunit, but here, again, that’s not the question: it’s a whydunit, with the arc centered on Francie’s devastating, violent and often very funny descent into madness.”↗
Cillian Murphy
“An absolutely stunning achievement and one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read. Dark, fiercely funny, compassionate, and unashamedly Irish. Its depiction of a young boy’s descent into isolation and madness in small town Ireland has never left me…”↗